“Electronic Control Unit” (ECU) is a generic term for an embedded system that controls an electrical system and/or subsystems in a transport vehicle. Transport vehicles may include, for example, automobiles, aircraft, trains, busses, etc. In a vehicle, the ECUs may be interconnected via a network, e.g., a bus. The ECUs may be configured to transmit and/or receive messages that contain commands and/or data.
ECUs may be susceptible to cyber attacks. A compromised ECU may be utilized by an attacker to inject a malicious message into the vehicle network. The malicious message may, in turn, cause another ECU to operate in a manner unintended by a vehicle and/or ECU designer.
The message format for some bus protocols do not contain a source identifier. In other words, such messages do not contain an ECU identifier that corresponds to the ECU that transmitted a particular message. This lack of a source identifier can make identifying a compromised ECU, that may be the source of a malicious message, difficult.